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Thursday 28 March 2013

Raise Your Beds

If there's two things we always want more of it's Time and Space... and Hank has a great tip to be able to get both...

His idea is not only going to give us more time and space but it'll also give us something we've asked for quite often, an easier way to plant and grow Free Gift crops than planting them one by one!

As usual, we'll see it all kick off with a popup...


That will start a five mission thread (all details HERE) and a four step build, the Spring Garden (all details HERE).


So, what does this wonderous thing do? Quite a lot, and most of it looks pretty darn brilliant...

It's main feature is that it's a time and space saver, because the Spring Garden could also be described as Crop storage, but in a more streamlined fashion to the Greenhouse.

It's actually a collection of smaller beds, which we receive through the missions (not built!). Each of those beds begins by storing 10 crops from the inventory and we can have 8 beds, giving us 80 crop space once the main missions are completed. However, once we complete the single small mission on Monday (more on that later) that will double to 20 per bed, giving us a final growing area of a nice big 160 crops, all squeezed into a single building!

So, how does it work?

Well, it works in five steps:

1) Decide if you want to place crops from the inventory or buy them from the market (you can only buy Premium crops)

2) Use the search bar and the left/right arrows to choose your crop.

3) Pick how many of each crop you want to plant, up to 10 per bed.

4) Wait...

5) Harvest!


There's a few extra bonuses to the Raised Beds as well, all crops inside are Wither Protected if you don't have the Rejuv Plant, there is NO chance of a groundhog appearing when you harvest AND... once your beds are upgraded to 20 apiece you'll be able to plant double the limit of planting for Steel and Brass forges!

We'll see one new free gift crop to pop in...


...and that will appear in the market alongside a new coin crop and a few mission request items and a couple items for Monday's release...




...the April Fool mission!


See more details HERE for this mission but have a little peek at a few new things we'll be seeing...


So let's get planting!


Monday 25 March 2013

Chop On Wood

There's never enough wood on the homestead, especially when so many missions need us to chop trees, so now it time to save some room by storing a few of those trees away!

Yes, it's time for that lumber storage folks have been asking for with the new Lumber Yard!

As usual, we'll see a popup to start...


That will kick off a four mission/one wrapper thread (all details HERE) and a four step build with upgrades, the Lumber Yard (all details HERE).


So, the question is how will this building of woody wonder work? Well, rather differently from normal storage, so settle in, switch on the grey matter and let's explore the Lumber Yard!

First off, It doesn't actually store trees. Yeah, yeah, I know, work with me here. Instead of STORING trees we SACRIFICE them into the buzzing blades and and clattering conveyor belts of the Yard.

When we place the tree into storage the tree itself goes away and we are credited the tree's chops in the Lumber Yard, with a 25% bonus. So storing a Pine Tree will credit you 10 chops. Then, when you need to chop a Pine Tree you simply open the yard, select how many chops you want to use and BAM, tree chopped!


Different trees are opened up to be stored as we do the missions and originally we can store two of each type and can be upgraded to hold 4 of each. Birch Willow and Hickory are upgraded individually, Pines and Pole Pines have a shared upgrade and Oaks, White Oaks and Valley Oaks share an upgrade.


That gives us between 40 and 60 chops for each tree type, including the new Birch Tree that's a mission reward and a new crop tree, although we can buy fully sized ones for shoes.


That is in the market along with the new free gift crop, the Foxtail Fern...


And... the bit I think we were all dreading.

In the market are also Tadpole Puddles which are healed with 10 Frog Feed until they become one of three Tree Frogs.



...and yep, we need all three eventually.


Thankfully we do know that they're going to cut down on these, my guess is this was already coded in... so fingers crossed it's the last one for a while.

So, as we've been after it for so long, let's enjoy the good part and get building that Lumber Storage!


Thursday 21 March 2013

Tracking Treasure

Goldie might have tried to make off with all Jack's treasure but she never realised just how heavy it would be and how low it would make the balloon fly!

With all the homestead hot on her heels she picked discretion over riches and has dumped Jack's fortune over the edge! So it's up to us to collect it all back up...

Which means a good old non-random, non-repeat, non-partnering mission thread on the hunt for gold!

As usual, it all kicks off with a popup...


That starts off a five mission thread and a wrapper mission (all details HERE) and a small buildable, the Golden Waterfall (all details HERE).


The missions themselves are a traditional set without too many bells and whistles, we will see three healables, which will each pop out a treasure for Jack, all details are in the respective missions.


We have three new crops BUT I'm delighted to say that of those three we've got one free gift crop and TWO new coin crops!


They'll be joined in the market with a few extra goodies, all of which we'll pick up during the missions as rewards.


And that's your lot! So lets go get Jack's goodies back!


Thursday 14 March 2013

Hatching a Plan

It seems the Pioneer Post isn't as reliable as our Frontierville Express and Merc!

Doc Auburn's just opened a crate and found himself the proud owner of a whole heap of eggs, and it sure ain't the type he can give to Granny for some tasty omelettes!

Instead, these are about to crack open and give birth to a range of creatures and it's up to us to help!

As usual it kicks off with a popup...


This kicks off 8 main missions and two wrappers today and a mission on Monday (all details HERE). However, although there is a building, the Egg Hatchery...


...there's no BUILD, the only crafting and requesting is in the missions themselves.

As for the missions, we'll see the usual overview window in the Egg Incubator...


...and as you work through the missions you'll see various animals popping from them!


As you can see, there's a Hatchlings count which works both as a counter in the missions towards the wrappers, and as an entry into a Sweepstakes! Note, it's available to ALL, there's no limitations on entry.


We are, I fear, having a new type of random animal (or three now and one later) that are coming out over the course of the missions, although we won't need to get ALL the drops from all the eggs thankfully.




There are different methods of healing them so check the missions pages HERE for specifics.

The bases for those eggs will be in the market along with a bundle of other new things, including two new crops and a fruit tree that will also be free gifts.


The tree will be a fruit tree and will need a special distilled water to grow.


We'll also get a brand new rideable for completing all the missions...


Now, you may have noticed earlier I said there was a mission coming Monday! Apparently some of the eggs from the Zoo have got themselves mixed up with the kids easter eggs, and you need to sort them out...


This single mission will be Monday's offering and will introduce the fourth random egg, the Coloured Egg.


So, two days for the price of one... how egg-citing? (C'mon, I had to put ONE in)